Home from the scope & feeling goofy

Julie
Glad you're feeling better.  And that you have a good doc. It's too bad that you had a stricture in addition to all your other problems, but this one was a little easier to deal with than the others.

The only part that I dont' understand is what he is talking about the pouch looking like an open wound but not being ulcerated.  It has to either severe gastritis or ulcers but I doubt he would use the term open wound for gastritis.  Open wounds sound like ulcers - I am a bit perplexed. I am glad that he put you on carafate because whatever it is, that will help heal it.  are you already on a PPI?  You might want to ask about taking it  2 times per day instead of once to reduce the acid levels from burning any further.  You should also check to see if he did a biopsy for Hpylori - even if not an ulcer now, which I am questioning, it could still become one if it is HPylori positive and not treated with antibiotics.  Please look into this stuff.

I have gone through tons of complications like you did and it isnt fun - we need answers and deserve some comfort.

The Dr called it severe gastritis. It wasn't any one or even several spots in the pouch. In the pics I saw (which were gross), the whole lining of the pouch was kind of oozy, He did take some biopsies, to make sure it wasn't an ulcer issue, but he seemed pretty confident that it didn't look like an ulcer to him. I am not on any PPI because I can't take them without complicating other pre existing issues.(Too difficult to try to explain here) But the Dr did say we may need to revisit that issue. He will talk to some specialist at the hospital and find out more info. This is an issue we talked about prior to surgery. He prefers to send his patients home on one for a little while, and we knew there would be some added risks without them. He said that some Drs don't prescribe them routinely,and their patients usually do fine. It is apparently a Dr's preference issue.

I'm not saying that I'm glad you had complications, but I am so glad you understand. This is so much harder than I thought it would be. Everybody keeps saying that it will all be worth it in the end. I'm not sure I believe that anything could be worth how sick I've been and how much pain I've had for the last 2 months.  Thanks for the info and understanding.       -Julie

Now I understand - not on a PPI. I have to say, that anyone that I have every seen not take a PPI, has ended up with ulcers within the first 6 months and usually within the first 3months.  We have new, tiny little pouches that need to be acid free at the beginning.  While, after the first year RNY is the best surgery for preventing acid reflux and we basically produce no acid, that isn't the case at the beginning.  A PPI is absolutely necessary. I do understand that you have a complicated medical history that you don't want to get into on these boards, if you ever want to discuss it privately - feel free to PM me, and maybe I would understand your situation better.  I do remember reading part of your history before.  My surgeon requires everyone take one for a year and then depending on your history, determines if you can stop them. I have to take them for life.  I had reflux so bad years ago that I had to have surgery to correct it.  Then in order to have my gastric bypass, they had to undo that surgery so I was pretty high risk for it to come back but thankfully it hasn't but I take protonix daily to make sure.  I also had ulcers preop from NSAID use.

With the condition of your pouch, oozing and all - you really may have to consider going on one - not sure if carafate alone will heal it.  Maybe you can get IV protonix, maybe that would work differently on you?  Not sure why you can't take it.